How to use SharpExt4 to access Raspberry Pi SD Card Linux partition

In my previous post, I introduced the SharpExt4 .Net library. In this post, I will show how to use SharpExt4 to access the Raspberry Pi SD card from Windows OS.

  • Take out the Raspberry Pi SD card and insert it into a USB card reader
  • Run “diskpart” from Windows command prompt and find out the SD card disk number and partition number. In my case, the disk number is 3 and the partition is 2.
  • Clone the SharpExt4 from GitHub, and open Visual Studio as Admin

Note: If you want to access physical drive, you must run application in admin permission

  • Open SharpExt4 and edit the Program.cs from the Sample project
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    //Open Raspberry Pi SD card, see diskpart disk number
    var disk = ExtDisk.Open(3);
    //Get the file system, see diskpart partition number
    var fs = ExtFileSystem.Open(disk.Parititions[1]);
    //List all directories in root folder
    foreach (var file in fs.GetDirectories("/", "*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
    {
        Console.WriteLine(file);
    }
}

Run the Sample project and see the result to list all the folders in Raspberry Pi root folder.

SharpExt4, a .Net library, provides read/write Linux ext2/3/4 file system from Windows application (continue)

Follow my previous post: https://www.nickdu.com/?p=896

Open Ext4 file system.

 //Get the file system
 var fs = ExtFileSystem.Open(disk.Parititions[0]);

Sample code to open a file for read

//Open a file for read
var file = fs.OpenFile("/etc/shells", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
//Check the file length
var filelen = file.Length;
var buf = new byte[filelen];
//Read the file content
var count = file.Read(buf, 0, (int)filelen);
file.Close();
var content = Encoding.Default.GetString(buf);
Console.WriteLine(content);

Sample code for listing all files in a folder

//List all files in /etc folder
foreach (var file in fs.GetFiles("/etc", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
    Console.WriteLine(file);
}

Sample code for file creation

//Open a file for write
var file = fs.OpenFile("/etc/test", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
var hello = "Hello World";
var buf = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(hello);
//Write to file
file.Write(buf, 0, buf.Length);
file.Close();

Full ExtDisk APIs

public sealed class ExtDisk : IDisposable
{
    public IList<Partition> Parititions { get; }
    public Geometry Geometry { get; }
    public ulong Capacity { get; }

    public static ExtDisk Open(string imagePath);
    public static ExtDisk Open(int DiskNumber);
    public sealed override void Dispose();
    public byte[] GetMasterBootRecord();

}

Full ExtFileSystem APIs

public sealed class ExtFileSystem : IDisposable
{
    public static string MountPoint { get; }
    public string Name { get; }
    public string VolumeLabel { get; }
    public bool CanWrite { get; }
    public string Description { get; }

    public static ExtFileSystem Open(Partition partition);
    public void CopyFile(string sourceFile, string destinationFile, bool overwrite);
    public void CreateDirectory(string path);
    public void CreateHardLink(string target, string path);
    public void CreateSymLink(string target, string path);
    public void DeleteDirectory(string path);
    public void DeleteFile(string path);
    public bool DirectoryExists(string path);
    public sealed override void Dispose();
    public bool FileExists(string path);
    public ValueType GetCreationTime(string path);
    public string[] GetDirectories(string path, string searchPattern, SearchOption searchOption);
    public ulong GetFileLength(string path);
    public string[] GetFiles(string path, string searchPattern, SearchOption searchOption);
    public DateTime GetLastAccessTime(string path);
    public DateTime GetLastWriteTime(string path);
    public uint GetMode(string path);
    public Tuple<uint, uint> GetOwner(string path);
    public void MoveDirectory(string sourceDirectoryName, string destinationDirectoryName);
    public ExtFileStream OpenFile(string path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access);
    public string ReadSymLink(string path);
    public void RenameFile(string sourceFileName, string destFileName);
    public void SetCreationTime(string path, DateTime newTime);
    public void SetLastAccessTime(string path, DateTime newTime);
    public void SetLastWriteTime(string path, DateTime newTime);
    public void SetMode(string path, uint mode);
    public void SetOwner(string path, uint uid, uint gid);
    public sealed override string ToString();
    public void Truncate(string path, ulong size);
}

Full ExtFileStream APIs

public class ExtFileStream : Stream
{
    public ExtFileStream(ExtFileSystem fs, string path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access);

    public override long Position { get; set; }
    public override long Length { get; }
    public override bool CanWrite { get; }
    public override bool CanRead { get; }
    public override bool CanSeek { get; }

    public override void Close();
    public override void Flush();
    public override int Read(byte[] array, int offset, int count);
    public override long Seek(long offset, SeekOrigin origin);
    public override void SetLength(long value);
    public override void Write(byte[] array, int offset, int count);

}

The full SharpExt4 library can be found at my GitHub.

https://github.com/nickdu088/SharpExt4

SharpExt4, a .Net library, provides read/write Linux ext2/3/4 file system from Windows application (continue)

Follow my last post SharpExt4, a .Net library, provides read/write Linux ext2/3/4 file system from Windows application.

The lwext4 is a great start point for me (thanks the author of lwext4), and it provides the core implementation of Linux ext2/3/4 filesystem.

What I need to do:

  1. To port the entire lwext4 project over to Visual Studio C/C++ (MSVC) environment, and compile it as a static library.
  2. To create a clr wrapper around the lwext4 static library and compiled as a .Net assembly DLL.
  3. To provide a .Net friendly interface for .Net Application to use.

When creating this .Net library, I would like to access not only physical Linux disk directly, but also Linux disk image file.

SharpExt4 provides two open disk APIs:

//Open physical Linux disk
ExtDisk SharpExt4.ExtDisk.Open(int DiskNumber);
//Open Linux disk image file
ExtDisk SharpExt4.ExtDisk.Open(String imagePath);

Open Linux disk image allows developer to directly manipulate the saved Linux disk image file, e.g. Raspberry Pi OS image or Debian OS image. The saved Linux disk image must be raw format. This API doesn’t support Virtual Machine disk files (VHD, VDI, XVA, VMDK, etc).

This API also support open USB/Hard drive as physical disk by giving disk number. If you have a USB disk or hard drive formatted as ext2/3/4 file system, this API allows the developer to read/write directly.

To be continue…

Next post: https://www.nickdu.com/?p=912

SharpExt4, a .Net library, provides read/write Linux ext2/3/4 file system from Windows application

As a day to day Windows user, it’s not easy to access Linux file system. Windows doesn’t natively supports Linux Extended file system access.

I have been working on Linux ARM IoT device, and it’s so annoying to be back and forth between Windows working PC and Linux development PC. I regularly need to burn/flash SD card, read/write file, remove/open directory in Linux device image.

These are the findings so far:

  1. DiscUtils, is a .NET library to read and write ISO files and Virtual Machine disk files (VHD, VDI, XVA, VMDK, etc). DiscUtils also provides limited access to ext2/3/4 filesystem.
  2. Ext2Fsd is another Windows file system driver for the Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4 file systems. It allows Windows to read Linux file systems natively, providing access to the file system via a drive letter that any program can access. But it stops developing since 2017.
  3. DiskInternals Linux Reader is a freeware application from DiskInternals, developers of data recovery software. But it doesn’t have API for .Net Framework.
  4. Ext2explore is an open-source application that works similarly to DiskInternals Linux Reader—but only for Ext4, Ext3, and Ext2 partitions. It stops developing for a long time and is read only.

I decided to implement my own library. Finally, I found this, lwext4, a C library to provide ext2/3/4 filesystem for microcontrollers. According to the author, the library has some cool and unique features in microcontrollers world:

  • directory indexing – fast file find and list operations
  • extents – fast big file truncate
  • journaling transactions & recovery – power loss resistance

Lwext4 is an excellent choice for SD/MMC card, USB flash drive or any other wear leveled memory types. However it is not good for raw flash devices.

To be continue.

Next post https://www.nickdu.com/?p=896

Jira 2 Azure Devops migration tool in C#

I have been assigned a task to migrate Jira, our internal bug tracking system, to Azure DevOps cloud. There is a Jira plugin available, called TFS4JIAR, but it costs lots of money.

Here is my simple .Net C# code (if you want to use, you need modify to suit your own working environment)

Complete project can be found my github.

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Jira2Azure
{
    class Program
    {
        static string JIRAIssueQuery = "http://jiraserver:8080/rest/api/latest/search?jql={0}&fields=*all";
        static string TFSBugUrl = "https://dev.azure.com/Test/SampleProject/_apis/wit/workitems/$Bug?api-version=6.0";
        static string TFSAttachmentUrl = "https://dev.azure.com/Test/SampleProject/_apis/wit/attachments?fileName={0}&api-version=6.0";

        static async Task<dynamic> JIRAGetIssues(string jql)
        {
            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                //your Jira login credential
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Basic XXXXXXXXXX");
                var msg = await client.GetStringAsync(string.Format(JIRAIssueQuery, jql));
                dynamic issues = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(msg);
                return issues;
            }
        }

        static async Task JIRA2TFS(string jql)
        {
            var issues = await JIRAGetIssues(jql);
            foreach (var issue in issues.issues)
            {
                var tfs = ConvertJIRA2TFS(issue);
                await TFSCreateIssue(tfs);
            }
        }

        static async Task<dynamic> TFSUploadFile(string file, byte[] byteData)
        {
            file = Uri.EscapeUriString(file);
            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                //your Azure login credential
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Basic XXXXXXXXX");
                using (var content = new ByteArrayContent(byteData))
                {
                    content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");

                    var msg = await client.PostAsync(string.Format(TFSAttachmentUrl, file), content);
                    var responseBody = msg.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
                    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(responseBody);
                }
            }
        }
        static byte[] JIRADownloadFile(dynamic url)
        {
            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                //your Jira login credential
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Basic XXXXXXXX");
                var content = client.GetByteArrayAsync((string)url).Result;
                return content;
            }
        }
        static string ConvertJIRA2TFS(dynamic issue)
        {
            //Additional JIRA link for documentation
            string json = $"[{{\"op\": \"add\",\"path\": \"/relations/-\",\"value\": {{\"rel\": \"Hyperlink\",\"url\": \"{issue.self}\", \"attributes\": {{\"comment\": \"{issue.key}\"}}}}}},";
            if (issue.fields.attachment != null)
            {
                foreach (var attach in issue.fields.attachment)
                {
                    var content = JIRADownloadFile(attach.content);
                    var attchUrl = TFSUploadFile((string)attach.filename, content).Result;
                    var attachedJson = $"{{\"rel\":\"AttachedFile\",\"url\":\"{(string)attchUrl.url}\",\"attributes\":{{\"resourceSize\":{content.Length},\"name\":\"{(string)attach.filename}\"}}}}";
                    json += string.Format("{{\"op\":\"add\",\"path\":\"{0}\",\"from\": null,\"value\":{1}}},", "/relations/-", attachedJson);
                }
            }
            string operation = "{{\"op\":\"add\",\"path\":\"{0}\",\"from\": null,\"value\":\"{1}\"}},";
            //######### more field mapping
            var fieldMapping = new Dictionary<string, dynamic>()
            {
                { "/fields/System.Title",issue.fields.summary },
                { "/fields/Microsoft.VSTS.TCM.ReproSteps", issue.fields.description},
                { "/fields/Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority", issue.fields.priority.id},
            };

            foreach (var field in fieldMapping)
            {
                if (field.Value != null)
                {
                    var str = ((string)field.Value).Replace("\"", "\\\"");
                    json += string.Format(operation, field.Key, str);
                }
            }

            json = json.Replace("\r\n", "<br/>");
            json = json.TrimEnd(',');
            json += "]";
            return json;
        }

        static async Task TFSCreateIssue(string json)
        {
            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                //your Azure login credential
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Basic XXXXXXXXXX");
                var content = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json-patch+json");
                var msg = await client.PostAsync(TFSBugUrl, content);
            }
        }

        static async Task Main(string[] args)
        {
            await JIRA2TFS("project = TAP");
        }
    }
}

Connect a Java database via C# .Net

I am currently working on a software project that involves connecting to a Java database (Apache Derby) via a .Net C# application.  I googled a lot and nothing helps. Finally, I decided to find my own one, and managed to get it up running. Here is my solution to share:

Tools we need:

using java.lang;
using java.sql;
using System;
using org.apache.derby.jdbc;

namespace DerbyDB
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver").newInstance();

                DriverManager.registerDriver(new EmbeddedDriver());
                var derbyDBConnection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:derby:C:/DerbyDB");
                if (derbyDBConnection != null)
                {
                    Statement st = derbyDBConnection.createStatement();
                    ResultSet rs = st.executeQuery("select * from eventlog");
                    while (rs.next())
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine(rs.getInt("ID"));
                        Console.WriteLine(rs.getTime("EVENT_DATE"));
                        Console.WriteLine(rs.getString("EVENT_MESSAGE"));
                    }
                    st.close();
                    derbyDBConnection.close();
                }
            }
            catch (java.lang.Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e);
            }
        }
    }
}

Access NAS from Raspberry Pi

I have a NAS, and it can be easily access from Raspberry Pi by using the following script:

  • Create a NAS folder
mkdir nas
  • mount NAS to the local nas folder
sudo mount -t cifs //lenovoez/documents /home/pi/nas/

Monitor Raspberry Pi CPU&GPU temperature

This is a small script from https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-find-out-raspberry-pi-gpu-and-arm-cpu-temperature-command/ to monitor Raspberry Pi CPU&GPU temperature.

#!/bin/bash
# Script: my-pi-temp.sh
# Purpose: Display the ARM CPU and GPU  temperature of Raspberry Pi
# Author: Vivek Gite <www.cyberciti.biz> under GPL v2.x+
# -------------------------------------------------------
cpu=$(</sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp)
echo "$(date) @ $(hostname)"
echo "-------------------------------------------"
echo "GPU => $(/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp)"
echo "CPU => $((cpu/1000))'C"

Save and close the file. Set permission:

chmod +x my-pi-temp.sh

Raspberry Pi 4 setup headless

Recently, I bought a Raspberry Pi 4. It’s better for me to record all the steps to setup my Raspberry Pi headless.

  • Download Raspberry Pi OS from https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/
  • Burn the image to the micro SD card, I use rufus, which can be found at https://rufus.ie/
  • Write an empty text file named “ssh (no file extension) to the root of the directory of the card. 
  • Setup a Wi-Fi connection for your Raspberry Pi. Create a text file called “wpa_supplicant.conf“, and place it in the root directory of the microSD card. You will need the following text in the file.
country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
scan_ssid=1
ssid="your_wifi_ssid"
psk="your_wifi_password"
}
  • Open “config.txt” from the micro SD card root folder. Uncomment out the following code
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

hdmi_drive=2
  • Insert the micro SD card to Raspberry Pi and boot up.
  • Connecting via SSH. I use Putty, which can be downloaded from https://www.putty.org/
  • Enter “raspberrypi” or “raspberrypi.local “as the address you wish to connect to in Putty, and click Open. 
  • Enter “pi” as your username and “raspberry “as your password. 
  • Enabling and Connecting over VNC
sudo raspi-config
  • Download, install and launch VNC Viewer to connect raspberry.

Odometer in Unity

To create a odometer in Unity is not easy. I couldn’t find a better one for my project.

Prepare all possible characters in a spinning roll and then stack them

 void Prepare()
 {
     //keep the orginal text vector for future use
     Meter.ForceMeshUpdate();
     sourceVertices = (Vector3[])Meter.textInfo.CopyMeshInfoVertexData()[0].vertices.Clone();
     Meter.textInfo.Clear();
     var templateString = string.Empty;
     foreach (var s in SpinStrip)
     {
         templateString += s + "\n";
     }

     //Update text to spinning text
     Meter.text = templateString;
     Meter.ForceMeshUpdate();
     cachedMeshInfo = Meter.textInfo.CopyMeshInfoVertexData();

     HideSpinCharacters();
     Spin(Meter.textInfo.characterInfo[currentValue], centerOfRotation, 0);
     Apply();
 }

 void HideSpinCharacters()
 {
     for (var i = 0; i < Meter.textInfo.characterCount; i++)
     {
         var charInfo = Meter.textInfo.characterInfo[i];
         if (charInfo.isVisible)
         {
             Spin(charInfo, centerOfRotation, -90);
         }
     }
 }

Spin each character one by one

...
 IEnumerator Spin(Tuple<int, int, float> param)
 {
     for (var curChar = param.Item1; curChar < param.Item2;curChar += 2)
     {
         var curCharInfo = Meter.textInfo.characterInfo[curChar];
         var nextCharInfo = Meter.textInfo.characterInfo[curChar + 2];

         for (float degree = -90; degree <= 0; degree += param.Item3)
         {
             Spin(curCharInfo, centerOfRotation, (degree + 90) < 90 ? (degree + 90) : 90);
             Spin(nextCharInfo, centerOfRotation, degree);
             Apply();
             yield return null;
         }
         yield return null;
     }
 }

void Spin(TMP_CharacterInfo charInfo, Vector3 centerOfRotation, float angleOfRotation)
 {
     // Get the index of the material used by the current character.
     int materialIndex = charInfo.materialReferenceIndex;

     // Get the index of the first vertex used by this text element.
     int vertexIndex = charInfo.vertexIndex;

     // Get the cached vertices of the mesh used by this text element (character or sprite).

     // Determine the center point of each character at the baseline.
     // Determine the center point of each character.
     Vector2 charMidBasline = (sourceVertices[0] + sourceVertices[2]) / 2;

     // Need to translate all 4 vertices of each quad to aligned with middle of character / baseline.
     // This is needed so the matrix TRS is applied at the origin for each character.
     Vector3 offset = charMidBasline;

     Vector3[] destinationVertices = Meter.textInfo.meshInfo[materialIndex].vertices;

     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 0] = sourceVertices[0] - offset;
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 1] = sourceVertices[1] - offset;
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 2] = sourceVertices[2] - offset;
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 3] = sourceVertices[3] - offset;


     // This should calculate the matrix, which helps to roate odometer
     Matrix4x4 translationToCenterPoint = Matrix4x4.Translate(centerOfRotation);
     Matrix4x4 rotation = Matrix4x4.Rotate(Quaternion.AngleAxis(angleOfRotation, Vector3.right));
     Matrix4x4 translationBackToOrigin = Matrix4x4.Translate(-centerOfRotation);

     Matrix4x4 matrix = translationToCenterPoint * rotation * translationBackToOrigin;

     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 0] = matrix.MultiplyPoint3x4(destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 0]);
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 1] = matrix.MultiplyPoint3x4(destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 1]);
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 2] = matrix.MultiplyPoint3x4(destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 2]);
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 3] = matrix.MultiplyPoint3x4(destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 3]);

     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 0] += offset;
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 1] += offset;
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 2] += offset;
     destinationVertices[vertexIndex + 3] += offset;
 }
...

The complete Unity project can be found at my github.